“So are you.”

“Come on,” he said, “I’ll wash your back and you can wash mine. If you’re good, I’ll even let you wash the front.”

“As if you could stop me,” she retorted with a saucy grin.

Showering with Zack was an experience like no other. He washed her hair and then, very thoroughly and slowly, he washed the rest of her, starting at her neck and working his way down. He had magical hands, she thought. His touches, his kisses, had her practically screaming with need.

Deciding that turnabout was fair play, she took the soap from his hand and washed him from head to heel. Running her hand over his stomach, she grinned, thinking he could be the poster boy for perfect six-pack abs.

He gasped when her hands slid lower, and she laughed out loud. She could hide what she was thinking and feeling. He couldn’t.

The water was nearly cold when he turned it off and carried her, wet and dripping, into the bedroom. Still holding her in his arms, he fell back on the bed, carrying her with him, so that she landed on top of him. One hand cupped her nape as he kissed her brow, her nose, her cheeks.

Almost frantic with need, she wriggled against him.

“Stop that,” he growled.

“Why? Don’t you like it?”

“Oh, yeah, but I was hoping to draw this out a little longer.”

“Next time,” she said.

“Whatever you want, darlin’,” he replied.

He rolled over effortlessly, tucking her neatly beneath him. He kissed her, his tongue dueling with hers while his hands stroked her damp skin, caressing her, arousing her. It was a good thing her skin was wet, she thought, or she probably would have gone up in flames. But, oh, what a way to go.

“Now, Zack.” She lifted her hips to receive him. It was heaven, pure heaven, to be in his arms, to feel his skin against her own as his body became a part of hers, two halves uniquely different, yet made to be one, each half incomplete without the other, each heart unfulfilled without the other. Heat suffused her. They were bound by more than the love they shared, she thought. They were forever bound by blood.

They moved together in perfect rhythm, a mating dance as old as time, as new as the love they shared.

She clung to him, breathless, weightless, as he carried her into a world filled with moonbeams and rainbows and pleasure beyond anything she had ever known. His own climax came hard on the heels of her own. Sheened with perspiration, she closed her eyes, sated and content as she slowly drifted back to earth.

With a sigh, she trailed her fingertips over his shoulders. “Next time,” she murmured, “I get to be on top.”

After the next time, they took another shower, then scurried back to bed and snuggled under the covers. Zack stroked Kaitlyn’s neck and shoulders. Her skin was soft and smooth, warm beneath his hand. Though she lay quietly beside him, her head pillowed on his chest, she was thinking so loudly, he had no trouble hearing her thoughts.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

She tilted her head back so she could see his face. “About what?”

“About your mother’s new lifestyle.”

“You must be reading my mind,” Kaitlyn remarked with a sigh.

“It isn’t necessary. I know you must be wondering about it.”

Kaitlyn turned onto her side, facing Zack. “Will she be the same? Will she still be my mother?”

“Pretty much. Of course, there’s no telling how she’ll react to her new life. I imagine it’s different when you’re born a vampire. You know what to expect, or at least you know what’s coming.”

“That’s true. I was nervous about the change, but I knew it was natural for us, so I wasn’t afraid. I’d seen it happen to others from time to time. Of course, with me, it wasn’t that big an adjustment. I could still eat and drink whatever I wanted. And my need for blood, after the first time, wasn’t overpowering.”

“You were lucky. It’s different with my kind. Once you’re turned, your whole life changes. Everything is different. Some people accept it without a problem. Some aren’t so lucky.”

“What do you mean?”

“Take my bartender, Scherry, for instance. She asked me to bring her across.”

“Really? Why?”

“She was dying. I’d never turned anyone before, and I was reluctant to do it, you know? I told her I was afraid I’d kill her.” He laughed at the memory. “She reminded me that she had nothing to lose but a few days.”

“How did she know you were a vampire?”

“I got careless one night. A customer came on to me and I kept her with me in the club after it closed. Scherry had a key and she came in while I was, ah, dining.” He shook his head with the memory. “Any other woman would have freaked out, but not Scherry.” He laughed. “Bold as brass, that girl. She asked me if I’d turn her when I finished eating.”

“Still, it must have taken a lot of nerve for her to ask you. I mean, she had no way of knowing what you’d do. You could have been some horrible monster parading as a nice guy. You could have killed her.”

“I tried to talk her out of it, but, like she said, she had nothing to lose.”

“At least it turned out all right,” Kaitlyn said.

“Yeah. But that first night, I thought I might have to destroy her.”

“Why?”

“She was blood crazy. I brought her three men to drink from and it wasn’t enough. I didn’t think that girl would ever get her fill, and then I realized it was probably because of her disease. She’d had leukemia. I guess it just took a lot to fill her up that first time. She was all right, after that.”

Kaitlyn stared up at the ceiling, thinking about what Zack had said. Would her mother be one of the lucky ones? Or would she be blood crazy, like Scherry?

There was a decided air of tension in the sitting room in Zack’s suite the following night. It danced over Kaitlyn’s skin like ants as she watched her father hover near her mother, his expression wary. Her mother was nervous and obviously on edge. Unable to sit still, she prowled back and forth between the sofa and the window. She paused now and then, shivering as if she were cold, and then she resumed pacing once again.

After watching her for almost an hour, Zack said, “Elena, you need to feed. The compulsion will only grow stronger. And the longer you put it off, the worse it will be for your chosen prey.”

“I can’t do that,” Elena said, her fingers twisting in the hem of her sweater. “I can’t . . .” She shook her head. “I can’t hunt someone like they were an animal.”

“Yes, you can,” Zack said, his voice quiet. “It will come to you naturally. All you have to do is follow your instincts.”

Elena bit down on her lower lip as she glanced at her husband and then back at Zack.

“I will take you,” Drake said.

Elena shook her head. “Drake, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d rather have Zack go with me this time.”

Drake went still. Though he said nothing, Elena knew she had hurt him. “It’s just that . . .” She folded her hands and pressed them against her chest. “I don’t know what I’ll do, or how I’ll react. I don’t want you to see me in case I behave badly.”

Drake frowned. “What are you saying?”

“I’m her sire,” Zack said. “I don’t know how it works in your world. But in mine, it’s natural for fledglings to look to their masters for guidance, just like it’s natural for her to expect me to teach her how to hunt, how to survive her new lifestyle. It has nothing to do with her feelings for you. It’s part of the bond she has with me now.”

A muscle throbbed in Drake’s jaw. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.

The tension in the room was palpable as Drake absorbed what Zack had told him. And then, suddenly, it was gone.

Drake took Elena in his arms. “I love you, wife,” he said quietly. “I will be here when you return.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Drake nodded. “This will take some getting used to, for both of us.”

“We won’t be gone long,” Zack said.

Drake nodded, though it was easy for Kaitlyn to see her father was not happy with this unexpected turn of events. Not that she could blame him. Her parents had been devoted to each other for over twenty years. He kissed Elena’s cheek, and then looked at Zack. “Take good care of her.”

“No problem.” Zack sent a reassuring look at Kaitlyn; then, taking Elena by the hand, he transported the two of them to a neighboring city.

“So,” Zack asked. “How do you feel?”

They were walking down a side street, headed toward Restaurant Row.

“The same as always,” Elena said with a shrug. “Maybe a little better.”

He frowned. He hadn’t felt anywhere near the same as always the night after he had been turned. On waking, his whole body, every fiber of his being, had been on fire with the overpowering need for blood. If he’d had someone to guide him, things might have turned out differently for the first mortal he came across. He still felt guilty for the lives he had taken before he learned he didn’t have to kill to survive, but there was no going back. He’d been a new vampire and he’d done what came naturally.

“Since I feel pretty much the same, maybe it didn’t work,” Elena said, a note of hope in her voice. Pausing, she looked up at him. “Is that possible?”

“Only one way to find out,” Zack said.

Before she realized what he meant to do, Zack bit into his own wrist.

Elena’s reaction left no doubt that she was now a vampire. Her eyes went red as she stared at the bright crimson oozing from the wound. The scent of hot, fresh blood filled the air. The coppery scent surrounded her; when she breathed it in, her lips peeled back, revealing a pair of sharp white fangs.

Elena touched the pad of her thumb to the tip of one fang, gasped as the contact, slight as it was, drew blood.